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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22410598">destiny?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects'>escapismandsharpobjects</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Witcher (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia Has Feelings, How Do I Tag, I think?, My First Work in This Fandom, Stream of Consciousness, this is MY favourite character and I get to choose the projection</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:01:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,057</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22410598</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>geralt has feelings. he reflects upon them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon &amp; Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia &amp; Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia &amp; Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>destiny?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello! this is the first fic i've written for the witcher and only the second fic i've posted to ao3 so it might not be the best, i apologize! i hope you enjoy though, let me know what you think if you want!! (also, i wasn't sure how to categorize this so i just went with gen but it could be read as ship also).</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Geralt of Rivia is many things. He is a Witcher, first and foremost. He is willing to do what is right, to do that which others cannot. He is stoic. He is observant. He is independent. He has few attachments. There is no one to miss him, there will be no one to grieve him when he dies.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There will be no one for him to grieve.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At least, there hadn’t been. Not until now. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Now there is a bard, and a sorceress, and a former princess (and Roach, of course). </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Until recently, he had thought that he would be incapable of grief.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But he knows differently now. Feels it, deep within himself, with startling certainty. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He has always been able to feel. It’s just that in the past, he’s mostly felt anger, and annoyance, maybe the occasional bit of apprehension. Now, though. Well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Now he feels love. He has felt it before, he thinks. Too long ago to remember the sensation. But he recognizes it. The warmth in his chest. It’s been a while since he’s been warm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Love brings with it some startling things. Fear, for one. The fear that something will happen, that he won’t be able to protect them. Fear that they will die. Fear that they will die </span>
  <em>
    <span>before him</span>
  </em>
  <span>, because that is not how it’s supposed to be-he’s supposed to die first, die bloodily, doing his job. No-one is supposed to miss him. This is to be his end. This has always been his end. This is his destiny. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Except now, he doesn’t want it to be. He knows he’ll probably still die a bloody death at the hands of a monster far before his natural lifespan is up. But he doesn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>want </span>
  </em>
  <span>to. He doesn’t want to leave them. He’s never been afraid to leave people before. He’s never been afraid to have people leave him before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What makes these people different, he wonders. What about them allowed them to so easily worm their way into his heart, which the world says beats too slowly to turn out any feeling at all? What about them allowed them to prove the world wrong? And, most importantly, what about </span>
  <em>
    <span>him </span>
  </em>
  <span>made them stay?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ciri is the easiest to figure out-she had been told to find him. He is her destiny, in the most literal sense of the word, and she is his. They were bound for each other from the start. Still. She could have left. Could have found him and then gone on. Found a new family, a new home. He just never imagined that the new family she would choose would be him, that the home she would choose would be the roads and forests and towns and caves of monsters that were the staples of a Witcher’s life. He’d never imagined she’d choose </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yennefer is a bit more complex. The two of them were not destined for each other, not in the way that he and Ciri were. Their destiny was something of their own making, something they had chosen. He knows why </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>chose her. That spark of life, of power, of confidence and endurance. She is like him in many ways, but in others, she is completely different. They understand each other in an unspoken sort of way. They push each other, and return to each other, again and again. They fit together, in a way that Geralt has never experienced before. So he knows why he chose her, why he was drawn to her from the start. He knows why he would follow her anywhere. But. She follows him, too, and he can’t quite figure out why. Why she would want him, when she could have her pick of anyone on the Continent, if she so desired. Some part of him recognizes that he completes her in the same way that she completes him. That the things he feels for her are also the things she feels for him. He doesn’t know why it has worked out like this, though. Because here’s the thing-he knows that there is no one better than her, but there are </span>
  <em>
    <span>so many </span>
  </em>
  <span>that are better than him. He is abrasive and he is too quiet and he doesn’t quite understand how to feel. So it baffles him, mostly, that not only should </span>
  <em>
    <span>she </span>
  </em>
  <span>be </span>
  <em>
    <span>his </span>
  </em>
  <span>destiny, but that </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>should be </span>
  <em>
    <span>hers</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He thinks of Jaskier last. He has the most trouble figuring out what the bard means to him. There is no destiny there, he thinks, at first. Not really. It’s something different, something unique. Something he cannot name. Because he can understand, even if just slightly, why Ciri and Yen have stayed with him. But he cannot for the life of him work out why Jaskier has stayed. His life is everything Jaskier’s is not. It is messy and painful and difficult and about as far from beautiful as it is possible to get. But Jaskier stays anyway. He complains the whole time, but still. He never leaves. He walks along beside Roach, talking animatedly about whatever strikes his fancy. He plays his lute when they rest for the night, working out new melodies and tweaking lyrics. It would be so </span>
  <em>
    <span>easy </span>
  </em>
  <span>for him to leave, to find a home and a place in need of some music and settle down. But he stays. Always, he stays. He is loyal and kind, and Geralt deserves neither of those things, especially from Jaskier, especially after all the times he’s been so cruel to him. But Jaskier pushes them upon him anyway. He stays, and he has the most reason to leave. So maybe it is a kind of destiny after all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And who is he to judge what destiny is, anyway? Is it really as simple as a promise? He thinks at first, how can it be? But it’s true, really. All destiny is is a promise. A promise of protection, sincerity, certainty, companionship. Of love. Warmth. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Could his destiny really be something so beautiful? Something he is completely undeserving of? </span>
  <em>
    <span>It is</span>
  </em>
  <span>, a voice in his head tells him. He tells it to shut up. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It is</span>
  </em>
  <span>, they tell him, as they continually stay by his side. He wants to ask them why. He does not. He just loves them instead. Maybe he doesn’t have to understand.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thank you so much for reading!!! i hope this wasn't too ooc lol, feel free to tell me what you think!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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